Ten years ago, the main character would have been a scrappy female journalist who’d do anything to get the story. In fact, the “Godzilla” remake of ten years ago actually was about a scrappy female journalist who’d do anything to get the story. “Cloverfield” captures a culture that exists right now, while “Godzilla” simply utilized a character type who goes all the way back to Lois Lane in the 1940’s. And that timeliness ties “Cloverfield” directly to the classics of the giant monster genre.
In order for giant monster movies to work, they have to be rooted in fear. Not simulated fear, created by the movie. Actual, real fear. Whatever our society is losing sleep over, that’s what the giant monster has to be. The original giant monster movies were about apes. King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, they were huge African creatures who came to America to ravish our women. And that’s exactly what old-timey racists were afraid of. “King Kong” documents the misconceptions and fears that people of the time had. This is largely why the 2006 remake underperformed – the story has this racist subtext that can’t be separated out, even when the creators have the best of intentions.
